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Talking About Kids is a weekly podcast for parents, educators, and direct service providers that explores the latest information on issues impacting children and adolescents, from preventing bullying to unlocking creativity. Hosted by R. Bradley Snyder, author of The 5 Simple Truths of Raising Kids, each episode presents a new topic and introduces listeners to authors, academics, and visionaries from around the globe.
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Send us Fan Mail The black garbage bag. You may or may not know its significance in the foster care system. Either way, my guest this episode will inspire you. Among other things, Rob Scheer is the author of A Forever Family: Fostering Change One Child at a Time and the founder of Comfort Cases, a nonprofit with the #BAGBUSTERS rallying cry and the mission to “inspire communities to bring dignity and hope to youth in foster care.” My hope is that you will never look at a black garbage bag the...
Send a text As we have discussed in previous episodes, trained advocates can help protect the rights of kids in IEP meetings and other legal proceedings. Unfortunately, there are times when additional help is required, times when a lawyer is needed. My guest this episode is Paula Yost. Paula is an attorney who is committed to, what she calls, “legal social work,” which is advocating for kids at the intersection of law and education or social service. Paula and I discuss her role, what you can...
Send us Fan Mail Do you have questions about the IEP process or even what an IEP is? You are not alone. Thankfully, my guest this episode can help. Vicki Christensen is an experienced, certified IEP advocate. As she describes in her forthcoming book – Uniquely, Fully, Enough: The Neurodivergent Parenting Journey, a Memoir and Handbook – Vicki has seen it all as a parent and as a professional. She and I discuss some of what she has learned and how you can apply the lessons to the kids in your ...
Send us Fan Mail The challenges of transitioning from high school to college are difficult for everyone. For neurodivergent kids, these challenges can be overwhelming. My guest this episode is Tara Williams, owner and founder of Innovative Collegiate Consultants. As you will hear, Tara believes that by selecting the right school, connecting with the right services, and getting the right executive function coaching, neurodivergent students can do more than survive the transition: they ca...
Send us Fan Mail There are summer camp fanatics, individuals who attribute their best qualities to the counselors they had, the songs they sang, the skits they performed, and the friendships they made in mosquito-infested cabins in the woods near a lake. My guest this episode, Matthew Kaufman, is one such individual. Matt attended summer camp, was a counselor, and, eventually, became a camp director. But he did not stop there. Matt sought to understand the science behind the positive experien...
Send us Fan Mail Darla Bishop likes to talk about a family’s relationship with money, like money is a person. The more I listened to her and thought about it, the more I recognized the parallels. A negative relationship with money, like negative interpersonal relationships, creates anxiety and fear, but a positive relationship is associated with health and longevity. In this episode, Darla and I discuss this and her ideas for improving kids’ relationships with money. More information about Da...
Send us Fan Mail The guest for Talking About Kids’ second episode of National Children’s Dental Health Month is Shelly Buckholz. Shelly is the Sealant Program Manager for the Arizona Department of Health Services, and she is going to describe what Arizona is doing to promote children’s oral health. Similar programs are available throughout the United States and in other countries. More information about Shelly and the Cavity Free AZ program is at talkingaboutkids.com.
Send us Fan Mail February is National Children’s Dental Health Month. To kick it off, I asked David Krol on the podcast to provide an overview of children’s oral health. David is former Chair of the American Academy of Pediatrics Section on Oral Health; the lead author of AAP's clinical report, Maintaining and Improving the Oral Health of Young Children; and an eloquent and passionate advocate for children’s oral health. In other words, the ideal Talking About Kids guest. More information abo...
Send us Fan Mail Autism is a spectrum disorder, meaning that it is a defined by a variety of conditions that, themselves, may exist on continuums. This can make it difficult…and anxiety provoking…for parents of kids with autism spectrum disorder and their care teams to find the optimal combination of interventions. Thankfully, there are sources like, Theresa Lyons’s Navigating AWEtism websites, that critically review the latest research, unpack jargon, and debunk the myths and fad treatments....
Send us Fan Mail Matt Sandoval is in the business of transforming kids’ trauma. To accomplish this, he and Free Arts, the organization he leads, employ a simple formula: art + mentors = resilience. Matt and I discuss how this equation works, as well as his tips for using art to build resilience in your home, in your classroom, or in your program. More information about Matt and Free Arts is at talkingaboutkids.com.
Send us Fan Mail Aditya Nagrath believes that math anxiety is real and that one of its chief instigators is memorization. This is why his book, Treating Mathematics Anxiety, and the system he created at Elephant Learning focus on fostering an understanding of math concepts. He believes in it so much that he guarantees that students learn one year of mathematics in three months using his system. Aditya and I discuss his approach and steps you can take to help the kids in your life overcome mat...
Send us Fan Mail Leah Ellis says that she created The Society of Child Entrepreneurs to help kids develop capacities like resilience and problem solving. The society currently offers workshops and coaching and is piloting a full curriculum with lessons on topics such as turning a passion into a plan. From what I have seen, Leah is doing great things, and the curriculum aligns with evidence-based practices and encourages individual reflection and positive peer-to-peer and child-adult interacti...
Send us Fan Mail Maria Gallucci is a CODA, which stands for a Child of Deaf Adults. As she chronicles in her new book, Raised in Silence: Lessons on Listening, Love, and Loud Family Dinners from a Child of Deaf Adults, being raised by two deaf parents, learning American Sign Language (ASL) as her primary language, and, while still a child, helping her parents navigate the hearing world was often challenging for Maria. However, as she and I discuss, being a CODA also increased Maria’s capacity...
Send us Fan Mail Harvey Araton is an award-winning reporter and best-selling author whose journalism and fiction expertly explore both the best and worst of sports. Harvey’s forthcoming work, The Goal of the Game, is his first written for middle readers, and the title is both a declaration and a question. As you will hear in our discussion, Harvey’s career has afforded him unique insights into what youth sports does well, where it is being led astray, and what should be done to ensure positiv...
Send us Fan Mail Is it possible to foster in kids the skills and knowledge needed to avoid trafficking and exploitation without needlessly exposing them, even in small way, to the devasting ugliness of those worlds? My guest today, Erin Williamson, believes that it is possible. Erin is the Chief Programs & Strategy Officer at Love146, an organization that has been fighting to end child trafficking and exploitation for over two decades. As you will hear, the approach Love146 takes is evide...
Send us Fan Mail What happens when a public health leader writes a memoir? In Harper Bailey’s case the resulting work is as instructional as it is engaging. As you will hear in our discussion, this was intentional. Harper wanted It Was Her: A Memoir, her debut book, to inspire readers to do the “inner work so children don’t inherit unhealed wounds.” As you will also hear, that inner work is demanding and perpetual, and it might even take on different forms depending on where an individual is ...
Send us Fan Mail This is the second part of my episode on the cognitive health of deaf children. My guest is Donna Jo Napoli, Professor of Linguistics and Social Justice at Swarthmore College, author of fiction and science books, and co-director of Rise Videobooks. The first part focused on early language and cognitive development. This second part focusses on what Donna Jo and her colleagues are doing to improve the reading skills of deaf students. More information about Donna Jo, her books,...
Send us Fan Mail More than half of all deaf students who graduate from high school have reading skills at or below fourth grade level. Research indicates that low literacy makes it difficult for individuals to obtain or maintain any employment, let alone the kind of employment that affords independence, a house, and a family. For well over a decade, Donna Jo Napoli – my guest this episode – and her colleagues have been publishing articles on why deaf students seem to have this literacy defici...
Send us Fan Mail Recently, Lucy Foulkes, a Research Fellow in the Department of Experimental Psychology at the University of Oxford, wrote an opinion piece for The Guardian newspaper titled, “Mental-health lessons in schools sound a like a great idea. The trouble is, they don’t work,” in which she asserts, “the only information we should teach en masse is where a young person should get help.” My guest today to discuss this article and get beyond its provocative title is Kevin Runions. In add...
Send us Fan Mail Do you know where the substitute teachers for your child’s preschool come from? If you are like me, you might imagine that potential substitutes and administrators sit down and get to know each other, possibly over tea and finger sandwiches. My guest this episode, Paul Buckley, will tell you that nothing could be further from the truth. Paul explains that current staffing practices afford preschools and substitutes very little, if any, say in the match process and offer few o...
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